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Best Posts of 2010
December 31, 2010
Happy 2011! Here are my favorite posts of 2010.
- The Facebook Photo Virus (Jan 18)- By far my most popular post ever.
- On Net Neutrality (Apr 9)- With the recent FCC ruling, this article is still relevant.
- Goodbye lala, Hello iTunes in the Cloud? (Apr 30)- So far: No.
- What to Consider when Buying a Cell Phone (Jun 10)
- Why Everyone would Pay $1 to Use Facebook (Sep 30)
- Do We Trust 3rd Party Apps Too Much? (Oct 6)
- Small Business Websites (Nov 9)
- Verizon LTE: Upgrade Now or Wait? (Dec 16)
Business | Gear | Software | Thoughts
Why iTunes Proves Apple is Only in it to Make Money
December 29, 2010
I know what you’re going to say; “All companies want to make money.” Â As a red-blooded, meat-eating, American capitalist, I think that’s a good thing. But there seems to be a thought among computer nerds (and most Apple product users) that Apple is the white light to Microsoft’s Eye of Sauron (sorry…I recently watched Lord of the Rings). That simply isn’t true, and iTunes proves it. Â It also proves that you don’t need to have the best, you just need to market it the right way.
Let’s take a look at a few reasons why iTunes is the bay window looking into what Apple really cares about most (hint: it’s money).
Read More “Why iTunes Proves Apple is Only in it to Make Money”
Links
Links Round Up for 12/26/10
December 26, 2010
- Google Voice Calls Free Through 2011 (google) : This is awesome since I use it pretty regularly.
- Set Up and Get to Know Your New ______ (lifehacker): Lifehacker has a bunch of Holiday How-tos every Christmas for those who get shiny new tech gifts. Here they are for 2010.
- This Damn Industry (nettuts): Jeffrey Way weighs in on constantly keeping up with the web development world. As a man of the same age, I feel the same exact way. Really great insight here.
- My Conversation with AT&T: This nicely sums up everything wrong with a lot of customer service, especially for those of us who are tech savvy.
That’s all I have for today because I was pretty much checked out all week! I’ll hopefully have a post this week on something tech (Wrap up of 2010 or Predictions for 2011). Otherwise, have a great New Years and thanks for a great 2010!
Links
Links Round Up for 12/5/10
December 5, 2010
- Business Idea [comic] (xkcd): You literally wouldn’t believe what idea I had and started to develop. The only one who would is myÂ cohort, SteveÂ Mekosh.
- For this Business, Bad Publicity is a Good Thing (NYT): This guy is a d-bag, but it’s the pretty classic business model of “any publicity is good publicity.”
- Flickr Hack Makes 3D Model of any City in a Day: So using a computer & Flickr, you can now build Rome in a day.
- RIM sues Kik for Patent Infringement (engadget): The fact that Kik’s founder used to work for RIM doesn’t change my opinion that RIM is starting to realize BBM is the only thing keeping them relevant. It’s a shame they are going the way of Palm. Both paved the way for great technology and then couldn’t keep up.
- Will the Real 4G Please Stand Up?: 4G is defined as broadband speeds (100mpbs moving, 1gbps stationary). For point of reference, Verizon’s LTE network, while MUCH faster than 3G, is 12mbps at most.
- Facebook’s New Messages (appstorm): In case you missed it, web.appstorm published my article about Facebook’s New Messages app, which is currently being rolled out to users.
- Google Releases Chrome 8 (engadget): Â Lots of bug fixes, plus build-in PDF viewer. I’ve been wanting that for a while now.
- Yankees, Jeter Finalize Contract (mlb trade rumors): Thank God.
- Change 2 Settings to Speed Up Photoshop (lifehacker): Thank you, Lifehacker & makephotoshopfaster.com
- Google Reader get Native Android App (engadget): And it’s awesome. My favorite feature: scrolling through articles using the volume buttons.
- Are Stock Templates Good or Bad for Web Designers? (webdesigntuts+): It depends on the needs of the clients. Templates help me offer very affordable websites to those who just want to get online. You should communicate to your clients why they need a custom design vs. a template.
Links
Links Round Up for 11/21/10
November 21, 2010
- Everyone Hates Ticketmaster- but No One can Take it Down(wired) :Â Ticketmaster is essentially a monopoly. Hopefully some of the new services mentioned in the article can rise to power soon.
- See Messages the Matter (Facebook): This is an interesting hybrid and probably one that will get used a lot. Facebook was smart not to make an email client. There are already giants in that area. But if this makes communication easer (and it seems it does), that’s a very good move.
- Do you have a social media strategy? (Freshbooks): I was recently asked by a friend, â€œdo you have a social media strategy?â€ I replied, â€œNo, we actually have a relationship strategy.â€
- Kindle and Kinect Christmas (Kottke): Kottke’s got a great point here. Amazon absolutely won by making Kindle books cross platform. I own a Kindle, and have a droid and an iPad. The books I’m reading are always with me.
- Is that right? Facebook triggers asthma attacks? (Washington Post): Also remember this: Food makes people fat & guns kill people. It’s not at all how we as individuals use these things.
- iTunes and The Beatles: A Day We’ll Soon Forget (appstorm): I really thought it was going to be an announcement about online streaming, especially since they bought lala last year (though itâ€™s starting to look more and more like they just bought it to get rid of a competitor). This shouldnâ€™t have been more than an announcement on the homepage and in the iTunes Store.
- 50 Ways to get Your Site Noticed (Nettuts+): Top 50 lists are fairly hard to come by. Well done, Nettuts!
- Facebook Accounted for 25% of all Pageviews in US Last Week (BGR): Wow.
- Angry Birds sequel to be told from pigs point of view (Pocket-lint): There aren’t too many mobile games I play regularly. I love this one and cannot wait for a sequel or multiplayer.
- Opt Out Day: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a Temporary Safety, deserve neither”.Ben Franklin. What the TSA is doing is deplorable. Protect your citizens, but do not violate them.
Links
Links Round Up for 11/14/10
November 14, 2010
- Olbermann & the Dangers of Partisan Media: The media is supposed to be the government watchdog for the people, and they by and large are failing us. And as illustrated (in exuberance) by Rachel Maddow’s quote. If she really thinks that Fox has a bias, but MSNBC does not, she shouldn’t have a job or consider herself a journalist.
- Damn You Auto Correct!: Here’s the, “Site that will take up all of my time” of the week.
- What’s Kik Messenger All About?: Â Kik is a new IM service for Android, iPhone, & Blackberry that relise on data (Internet) instead of txt messaging. It’s supposed to be like a cross platform BBM. BGR gives us a rundown of it.
- If You Begin a Sentence with Well, there’s a Good Chance You’re Lying: Well, I’ll certainly be more mindful of this.
- Facebook’s GMail Killer, Project Titan, Coming Monday: Pretty interesting. I do think that Facebook email would cater to a different crowd than gmail though.
- New Tech lets You Pee on Your Phone to Check for an STD: Just try to avoid the sticker that indicated water damage.
- [Why] Netflix [is not] on Android: The good news is rumors indicate we’ll see it on some newer Android phones in 2011
- Feds say Firing for Facebook Posts is Illegal: There is a debate on whether or not what you post on Facebook could be considered protected speech. I would argue it is. If you say something in a public area for others to hear, it’s still protected. Why should Facebook be any different?
Recommended listening for the week: Christina Perri. Her current single is ‘Jar of Hearts’
Thoughts | Websites
Small Business Websites
November 9, 2010
Yesterday I read a very interesting article in the USA Today about the 7 Deadly Sins of Website Creation. The article (actually entitled, ‘What should a small business’ website do?’) talks about just how important a good website is for a small business. After reading it, I couldn’t agree more. A while back the local paper published a story about how the writer was able to set-up a sufficient website for a local business completely free of charge using wordpress.com, and I was prettyÂ appalledÂ at the article. I knew it clearly wasn’t written by a professional web developer, just a hobbyist. In any case, I took this article to my students to see what they thought about it and to get their thoughts on websites in general.
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Gear | Thoughts
My Review on the iPad
November 3, 2010
A couple of weeks ago I picked up the 16GB 3G iPad as sort of a birthday gift from me to me. It’s something I’ve been contemplating for a while and finally pulled the trigged. I promised quite a few people a review on the device now that I own it and while I didn’t do rigorous testing, I used it in the most common testing environments- my house, other offices, the train, meetings, and using it for travel instead of my laptop. You can see my thoughts after the jump.
Read More “My Review on the iPad”
Links
Links Round Up for 10/31/10
October 31, 2010
- Super-Toys Last all Summer Long: Fun that he wrote this 2 days after I bought mine. He’s dead on about sharing though. There needs to be an easier way. Full review from me coming soon.
- Bypass Facebook Fan Pages: Can we all stop liking those stupid pages now?
- Nordstrom’s Employee Handbook- short and sweet: If I ever have a full on company, my employee handbook will be similar. I hate stupid, pointless rules.
- 6 Secret Monopolies You Didn’t Know Run the World: I know I started on the 2nd page, but #3 is the most important one (for all of you fanboys out there).
- NationÂ DisappointedÂ by Great World Series Matchup: Incredibly true. Anyone who’s said this is a bad World Series is clearly only a Yankees or Phillies fan, not a baseball fan. [note: I’m a Yankees fan, but I love good baseball.]
- Ron Howard Explains Keeping “Gay” Joke in The Dilemma: There are so many other more important things people should be getting mad about. If you don’t like something said in a movie, don’t see that movie!
- Really Really Bad Headline: This happens too much.
- Dribble – Utah: Great designs here. I wish I could do stuff like this.
- PHP SOAP Extension: I had to do some work with SOAP this week and found this link to be helpful. I’ll also probably do a full write up on using SOAP with PHP and the problems I ran into.
Links
Links Round Up for 10/10/10
October 10, 2010
- Baby boomers,Â millennials have same woe: unemployment:Â Â (shameless promotion). I was in my local paper last week with my business partner, talking about how the job market was a contributing factor into why we started our own business.
- Internet Explorer Falls Below 50% Global Market Share. Chrome on the rise: It’s not that I don’t like IE. IE8 is a huge step forward and IE9 looks very promising. It’s that I want people to get a modern browser because I feel in some ways it’s holding the web development community back when they still use 6 or 7.
- TalkMyPhone Sends and Receives Your Android’s SMS Messages Through Instant Messages: Been using this for a few days and it’s great. VeryÂ convenientÂ when I’m in front of my computer.
- Roy Halladay was Made for This Moment: In his first post season appearance ever, Roy Halladay threw the second post season no-hitter ever.
- Johnny Depp is the Nicest Guy in the World: Depp got a letter from a little girl (it was addressed to Jack Sparrow) that she needed help staging a mutiny at her school. So of-course, Depp shows up at her school in full make-up. It’s like he’s trying to make up for all the shitty people in Hollywood who do things just for attention (Sean Penn) or are super destructive (Lindsay Lohan).
- Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud: envato: Â 37signals does a story every once in a while on Million dollar companies that took no venture capital (as they, themselves are one). I find both companies incredibly inspirational.
- Five Useful Design Techniques and Coding Solutions For Web Designers: I especially like #5, print layouts for the web.

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Stop Wasting Your Time Fighting
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